The C programming language defines two standard memory management functions: malloc() and free(). C programmers frequently use those functions to allocate buffers at run time to pass data between functions. In many situations, however, you cannot predetermine the actual sizes required for the buffers, which may cause several fundamental problems for constructing complex C programs. This article advocates a self-managing, abstract data buffer. It outlines a pseudo-C implementation of the abstract buffer and details the advantages of adopting this mechanism.

"Planet CCRMA and AGNULA are two examples of such projects. Each provides a complete Linux distribution with a kernel optimized for audio performance and a software base of selected sound applications. There are differences between the two projects, but I can say at the start that either or both do just fine if you're interested in getting into the new world of Linux sound software."

"verall, I felt this was an excellent book which clearly fufilled its purpose. For the intermediate to advanced network security engineer this could act as an excellent desktop reference, while still being accessible enough to teach to the beginner. The writing style is clear and precise, and I found no technical errors in the material presented."

"With sleeves drawn up, we, the Java programmers, start to tackle the first citizen of the SQL, calledselect. Very quickly, we meet these quirky things called joins. Our original suspicion that we should be sticking to Java is quickly reinforced as the syntax and oddities of joins put us on the defense and suddenly seem to show Java in a shining light. But the task at hand is unwavering and your boss is quite certain that it can't be all that hard to write a few SQL statements."

Linux can be made profitable and it can be made so without going the enterprise route or by relying on the traditional services an support model-- as long as technology companies are willing to sell the operating system on their own highly optimized and performance enhanced proprietary hardware, says D.D. Chamberlain in his editorial here.

This article examines the process of proper Linux security management in 2004. First, a system should be hardened and patched. Next, a security routine should be established to ensure that all new vulnerabilities are addressed. Linux security should be treated as an evolving process. LinuxSecurity

"It's taken 5 days, but this machine is now fully functional. Granted, a lot of that time was spent on the sound card due to my ineptness with hardware, but then most computer users aren't hardware experts either. Mozilla is running strong for web browsing. Kmail, pan, gaim, and xchat are also working flawlessly for communication. My other preferred apps, including bluefish, opera, a non-crippled xmms, and frozen-bubble are installed and running really well on this machine. "

"This document does not aim to regurgitate Marketing KoolAid,not that there's anything wrong with it™, but is intended primarily as an introduction to Mac OS X of those members of the technical community who are not familiar with it. You can think of it as a somewhat low-level taste of Apple's operating system. "

"Once I was finished, it was hard to tell the difference between my GNU/Linux boxes and the FreeBSD box; I have to issue the uname command to be sure. They look the same! They act the same! FreeBSD 5.1 seems to run snappily enough on this old box, even when running full-blown KDE 3.1"

Linux Journal tells us how to make a
slide show the background for our desktop.

"This article explains how to cycle randomly through a directory structure of graphic images and display them on your desktop background. GNOME, KDE and other X desktops/window managers are covered. This is a good exercise in shell scripting and piping, and it shows off the programs find and xargs. We also cover how to select only images of a given size, say 1024x768."

"In this issue, we show you how to set up a network of inexpensive systems to crunch numbers for a distributed computing project. These days, hardware is cheap, with newer and better hardware being released ever quicker and at continually-dropping prices. The wide availability of inexpensive processors and memory as well as low-cost motherboards that build in everything from display device to LAN interfaces enables some hobbyists to create "farms" meant for a single purpose — to process data brought in by distributed computing project clients."

"Why did you decide to port Postal 2 to Linux?
Because we're very aware of the Linux community. Game developers are still too scared of doing anything for the good old penguin, so we decided to actually do something about that and give Linux users the chance to play our game too. Also, the original Postal was ported to Linux and was very well received. We want as many people as possible to enjoy Postal 2! "

"The reliability and longevity of the C programming language coupled with the stability of MySQL make them a strong pair for system database management. In last month's MySQL column, I went over the basics of developing a Perl interface to MySQl. Before that, I covered PHP with MySQL. This month, I will discuss building an interface to MySQL with C."

Contributors to Linux are nothing short of dedicated when it comes to offering their coding efforts, but as many in this community are aware, much of that effort is wasted in the way of duplicated work, a great deal of which happen to only be the "sexy" parts of the code base.
The problem is not so much in getting developer support, but in getting the masses organized and motivated to tackle the otherwise neglected aspects of the open source operating system. The following osViews editorial contributor has some interesting ideas to not only help Linux development but also the platform as a whole and even its promotion.